Wednesday, April 22, 2015

ARPA Sues Ontario Government for Censoring Abortion Stats

The goal is to review the constitutionality of the ironically named Broader Public Sector Accountability Act, which excludes abortion statistics from the the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act or FIPPA.

Pat Maloney says:

I think we can all agree, that regardless of our own views on this very controversial topic, hiding any and all information, about a publicly funded medical procedure hinders the public’s ability to hold the government to account and sets a dangerous precedent.

Legal Counsel Andre Schutten says:

Freedom of information is protected by the Charter’s freedom of expression guarantee because without access to government information, a citizen cannot meaningfully discuss, debate, scrutinize or make informed opinions on matters of public policy. This case is about transparency and democracy. In our view, the actions of a democratic government and the money it spends should be open to scrutiny by the taxpayer and voter. On this point, people from all sides of the political spectrum should join forces with us.

By the way, to my Progressive Conservative friends, there's a leadership vote going on right now.

It would be nice to see if the leadership contenders will comment on this situation. Somehow I doubt it. They didn't do anything to stop it in the first place.

I'm not sure how far this is going to go.

Nevertheless, it's an egregious violation of the principle of accountability to hide from the public the number of government-funded abortions. If public money is used, the public has a right to know.